Go inside the House

From indiewire.com:

When season one of "House of Cards" premiered on Netflix February 1st of last year, it arrived with a major filmmaker attached -- David Fincher, who made his television directing debut with the first two episodes, and remains attached in the upcoming second season as an executive producer.

Fincher was joined by an impressive array of guest directors on the series -- James Foley ("Glengarry Glen Ross"), Charles McDougall ("Queer as Folk," "Sex and the City"), Carl Franklin ("Devil in a Blue Dress," "Out of Time"), Allen Coulter ("Hollywoodland," "The Sopranos") and, hey, Joel Schumacher.

Now Netflix has added director's commentary from all six episode directors on season one, available as an alternate audio track with each installment. It's an awfully cool feature, especially in the two Fincher episodes, which find the "Social Network" filmmaker talking in detail both about the scenes on screen and about how the series came together with writer/showrunner Beau Willimon and stars Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright and the rest of the cast. Among other things, Fincher shares what he said during the first read-through, when he greeted the group of actors, including those he'd worked with before and ones he hadn't.

I walked in and I got to say the thing I've always wanted to say to a cast, which is "Every single person in this room represents our first choice, so don't fuck this up. Cause if you do, I will never forgive you."

Season two of "House of Cards" will premiere in its 13-episode whole on Friday, February 14.

2014 Movie Preview: #17 - Horrible Bosses 2

Release date: November 26

Plot summary: Fed up with answering to higher-ups, Nick, Dale and Kurt decide to become their own bosses by launching their own business in "Horrible Bosses 2." But a slick investor soon pulls the rug out from under them. Outplayed and desperate, and with no legal recourse, the three would-be entrepreneurs hatch a misguided plan to kidnap the investor's adult son and ransom him to regain control of their company.

My take: The first Horrible Bosses had a lot of potential but did not quite live up to my expectations. With a lot of sequels, the law of diminishing returns sets in. I truly hope that isn't the case here because the cast is so strong. Based on the limited amount of knowledge we have on the plot, it seems like this can potentially build off of the first one and deliver an even stronger film this time around.

Shuffle up and deal

Get ready for more political machinations from Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey). Here's the first trailer for Season 2 of House of Cards set to be released on Netflix on February 14.

Valentine's Day Cards

From EW.com:

Netflix announced today that the second season of House of Cards will bow Friday, Feb. 14. All 13-episodes of the season that stars Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright will be available for viewers to watch instantly on Netflix.

The political series is from director David Fincher and screenwriters Beau Willimon and Eric Roth. This is what Netflix says is in store for the second season: Francis (Spacey) and Claire (Wright) Underwood continue their ruthless rise to power as threats mount on all fronts. Zoe Barnes (Kate Mara), an up-and-coming reporter and Francis’s former paramour, is inching closer to the truth about his crimes. President Walker’s (Michel Gill) billionaire confidante Raymond Tusk (Gerald McRaney) demands that Francis reciprocate political favors or face retribution. And Claire must confront the increasing glare of the spotlight as it eats away at her and Francis’s once private existence. The Underwood’s must overcome these dangers — past and present — to avoid losing everything, regardless of collateral damage they leave in their wake.

Netflix does not receive streaming data on its original fare. The service reports that it has over 40 million members in more than 40 countries, who apparently enjoy more than one billion hours of TV shows and movies per month, including original series.

Are you ready to binge view?

Speaking of Netflix, they are set to have a potentially big weekend ahead of them. While a lot of buzz has naturally been about the upcoming fourth season of Arrested Development coming in May, Netflix is releasing a new series, starting tomorrow (February 1st) called House of Cards. It's a political thriller starring Kevin Spacey. Like the new season of AD, all episodes for this show will be released at once. If it's successful, it could be seen as a transformative moment in TV. This act of 'binge viewing' as opposed to weekly episodic TV (I believe I have to pay Michael Cole a royalty check for saying that) may just be the wave of the future. Whether you choose to watch these episodes all at once or periodically over time won't matter though if the show isn't any good, so let's hope this is some good quality viewing. You can get a sneak peek of what you can expect with the trailer posted below.

RBR: Margin Call

Some may argue that its too soon to do a movie about the 2008 financial meltdown, but when I saw the previews for this film, I thought that this would be a real winner. It boasts an impressive cast featuring the likes of Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Paul Bettany, Zachary Quinto, Demi Moore, and Stanley Tucci. But despite the topical nature of the film and its stellar actors, this film fell flat for me. The film which takes place within about a 24 hour period centers around a fictious financial company who comes to realize that their economic infrastructure is about to collapse. To convey this the film is basically comprised of mini dialogues where characters fret about the ramifications of this while nervously staring at figures on a computer screen. Most of the cast do their best with their performances, but the dialogue is either stilted or convulted with financial jargon. There just was no energy behind what anyone said. For a moment in history that has created such an emotional reactions from everyone involved and affected, this film fails to capture that. As a result, you don't know how to feel about what you're seeing. The film doesn't really make you feel sad, or angry, or anything for that matter. I sat there passively waiting for someone to produce a rise out of me. While the film is not without some merit, I can't exactly recommend it. The few who would have an interest in seeing this subject be turned into a film will likely be bored by this dry adaptation of those events. I'm just thankful I waited until this was on Redbox and only paid a dollar to see it instead of paying money to see it in theaters or on VOD. Now that would have been a real financial crisis! Rating: ** 1/2